On episode #230 of the science show This Week in Virology, Vincent, Rich, Alan and Kathy review H7N9 infections in China, the debate over patenting genes, and receptor-binding by ferret-transmissible avian H5 influenza virus. You can find TWiV #230 at www.microbe.tv/twiv.
Harvard University is home to some of the world’s finest virologists. But apparently they do not communicate with the writers at Harvard Magazine, where a botched story on the avian H5N1 influenza virus has just been published. The problems begin with the first paragraph: But when Dutch researchers recently created an even more deadly strain …
Harvard University: Great virology, bad science writing Read More »
Both Nature and the New York Times have weighed in on the resumption of influenza H5N1 research. In an editorial from 23 January 2013, Nature opines that “Experiments that make deadly pathogens more dangerous demand the utmost scrutiny”: As several critics point out, the assessments of the relative risks and benefits of such research remain …
The risks and benefits of influenza H5N1 research Read More »
Yesterday Denise Grady wrote in the New York Times about the end of the moratorium on influenza H5N1 virus research. The story headline read: Research to resume on modified, deadlier bird flu The Minneapolis Star Tribune reprinted Ms. Grady’s story with the following headline: Studies will resume on deadly modified flu virus Where do these …
In early 2012 influenza virus researchers around the world decided to stop working on highly pathogenic avian influenza H5N1 virus. This decision came after work from the Fouchier and Kawaoka laboratories revealed the isolation of influenza H5N1 strains that can be passed among ferrets by aerosol. The moratorium on influenza H5N1 virus research has now …
On episode #199 of the science show This Week in Virology, Vincent, Alan, Rich, and Kathy discuss recent outbreaks of hantavirus pulmonary syndrome in Yosemite National Park and novel swine-origin influenza in the US midwest, and isolation of the Heartland virus from two patients in Missouri with severe febrile illness. You can find TWiV #199 …
